Sunday, May 25, 2008

Sneaking a look


Sneaking a look
Originally uploaded by dundeeladdie
Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura sneaks a look at the Celtic support as his side perform 'the huddle' before their final Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League match of the season at Tannadice Park, Dundee. A goal from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink clinched the league title for the Glasgow giants.

Celtic wiki www.kerrydalestreet.com says of the huddle "It was introduced to Celtic by former Captain Tony 'Mogga' Mowbray (1991 - 1995) who felt it would be a great way of instilling a bit more spirit into the players, and cohesiveness into the team. The Huddle is now an integral part of our pre-match ritual, and serves to unite the players, the team, and the fans in preparedness to face our footballing adversaries. It bonds us, and readies us for those we are about to commence battle with."

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Arbroath v Stranraer play off

I shoot Dundee Football Club’s matches for the club, a local paper and often a national paper too, I covered every game they played in the season just finished – from the very first friendly in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis to the season closer at home to Hamilton Academical on April 26th, and lots of people who know me think that’s it as far as it goes for me - I’ve been asked a couple of times what I’m doing to fill my evenings and weekends since their season finished – Truth is I’m busier than I was during the regular season.

As well as covering a couple of sportsmans' dinners and a kickboxing tournament over the last two weeks I have covered nine matches, from schools football to amateur cup finals to the Scottish Football League Third division play offs – I photographed both legs of Arbroath’s semi final win over Cowdenbeath and also the home leg of their final against Stranraer – when Robbie Raeside gave me one of my favourite ‘cellys’ of the season.

I’ve known Robbie for years, he played for Dundee a decade ago and lived in the same street as me for a little while, he’s a smashing bloke and I was delighted when he headed Arbroath into the lead just before half time – and came our way to celebrate. The paper didn’t use this - they ran with my pic of his goal instead but I still love it.